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Obama to Name New National Monuments

Among the new national monuments will be the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument.Credit Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal, via Associated Press

President Obama, who was criticized in his first term for favoring oil and gas development over land conservation, on Monday will designate five new national monuments, White House officials said on Friday.

They are the First State National Monument in Delaware and Pennsylvania, the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico, the San Juan Islands National Monument in Washington State, the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio and a monument commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad in Maryland.

The new protected and historical monuments range in size from the 240,000 acres to be permanently protected in New Mexico and the 1,000 acres in the San Juan Islands to the small sites honoring Tubman and Young, the third African-American to graduate from West Point and the first to attain the rank of colonel.

The White House and the Interior Department had no official comment on Friday.

This is the first time Mr. Obama has acted aggressively in setting aside public lands and waters for permanent protection; he has focused instead on increasing domestic conventional and renewable energy production. But in his second Inaugural Address and his recent State of the Union speech, he said he would use his executive authority to advance issues, like measures on climate change and the environment, on which Congress has refused to act.

Rick Smith, of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said the president invoked his powers because Congress had failed to enact legislation creating more parks and protected sites. The last Congress was the first in more than 60 years that did not set aside any lands for protection as a national park, monument or wilderness area.

“Americans support and want more parks and monuments because they boost local economies, preserve our heritage and tell our diverse American story,” Mr. Smith said in an e-mail. “In particular, all Americans can be proud that with the establishment of First State National Monument in Delaware, all 50 states are now home to an area included in our National Park System.”

Mr. Obama is designating the monuments using his power under the Antiquities Act, the 1906 law that allows presidents to set aside important natural, cultural and historical sites for permanent protection. The law was first used by Theodore Roosevelt that year to protect Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and it has been invoked numerous times by 16 succeeding presidents.

Among the national parks and monuments designated under the Antiquities Act are Grand Canyon National Park, Statue of Liberty National Monument and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado.

The president can designate either a national park or a monument under the Antiquities Act, but Congressional approval is needed to create a national park.

Mr. Obama created four monuments under the act in his first term: the César E. Chávez National Monument in California, the Fort Monroe National Monument in Virginia, the Fort Ord National Monument in California and the Chimney Rock National Monument in the San Juan National Forest in southwestern Colorado.

Last month, Bruce Babbitt, the interior secretary in the Clinton administration, said in a speech that Mr. Obama was falling behind many of his predecessors in setting aside lands for wilderness, while making vast tracts available for drilling.

Mr. Babbitt noted that President George Bush and President Bill Clinton protected about one acre of public land for every acre made available for hydrocarbon development. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Babbitt said, industry claimed 7.5 acres for every acre set aside for public use, although that figure does not include the 200 million acres of marine reserve near Hawaii that Mr. Bush decided to protect at the end of his presidency, which would have given him a better ratio than any of his predecessors.

“So far under President Obama, industry has been winning the race as it obtains more and more land for oil and gas,” Mr. Babbitt said. “Over the past four years, the industry has leased more than 6 million acres, compared with only 2.6 million acres permanently protected.”

Although the monuments to be designated are not large enough to significantly change that balance, the move suggests that Mr. Obama may intend to use his authority in his second term to set aside more public lands for conservation, recreation and other noncommercial uses.

Correction: March 22, 2013An earlier version of this article misstated the number of acres to be set aside in the San Juan Islands. It is 1,000 acres -- not 240,000 acres, which is the amount to be permanently protected in New Mexico.

Correction: April 2, 2013An article on March 23 about plans by President Obama to designate five new national monuments overstated his powers for designating a national park. He needs Congressional approval for parks; he cannot designate a park merely by issuing a proclamation under the Antiquities Act — as he can do for national monuments.

A version of this article appears in print on 03/23/2013, on page A12 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Obama to Name 5 New National Monuments.

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